1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand-operated flow control valve, and, more particularly, to double looped support ring which serves both to pivotally mount an operating handle on the body of the valve, and to provide a bi-directionally oriented hanger for supporting the valve from a hook.
2. Prior Art
Handle-operated flow control valves having operating handles which are pivotally connected to valve bodies are known. Exemplary valves of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,072,555, 3,632,046, 3,711,028, 3,727,841, 3,756,273, and 4,035,004, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The flow control valves disclosed in the referenced patents each utilize a rivet which extends through aligned holes formed through a valve body and an operating handle to pivotally mount the handle on the body. The use of a single rivet to pivotally mount an operating handle on a valve body of a flow control valve is undesirable in that a hole must be formed through the full thickness of the body to receive the majority of the length of the rivet. Drilling or otherwise forming time through-hole is an undesirably expensive and time consuming procedure in that it must be performed as a separate and distinct machining operation after the body of the valve has been cast.
Still another drawback of the use of a rivet is that valve assembly is complicated by the need to insert and properly position the rivet in the aligned holes of the body and handle so that crimping or heading of one or both ends of the rivet can be carried out in still another manufacturing procedure. Moreover, care must be taken in crimping or heading the rivet to assure that the rivet is not caused to clamp the handle to the body too tightly thereby inhibiting easy pivoting of the handle relative to the body. In some instances, the type of rivet end formation which results when a rivet is crimped or headed leaves a projection which is unsightly and may tend to snag the clothes of an operator.
A further drawback of handle-operated flow control valves of the type disclosed in the referenced patents is that these valves have no support rings or other structure defining openings which can be used to receive hooks or the like to securely support the valves near workstations where they are to be used.
The referenced Spraying Apparatus Case discloses a handle-operated valve which utilizes a C-shaped ring to pivotally mount an operating handle on a valve body and to provide a single loop which can be used to support the valve from a hook or the like. A problem with a handle-mounting ring of this type is that its C-shape character provides only a mono-planar opening for receiving a support hook, whereby, in some instances hooks and other support formations may not be insertable through the ring, or may cause the valve to be supported in an undesirable direction of orientation.